{"id":247742,"date":"2020-03-11T02:01:05","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T06:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=247742"},"modified":"2020-03-11T02:01:05","modified_gmt":"2020-03-11T06:01:05","slug":"weinstein-lawyers-seek-mercy-after-his-historic-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/11\/weinstein-lawyers-seek-mercy-after-his-historic-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Weinstein lawyers seek mercy after his ‘historic’ fall"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From the start, Weinstein’s use of a walker to get in and out of court each day at his trial raised questions about his health. (File Photo<\/a>: Thomas Hawk\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-NC 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 With prosecutors seeking a severe punishment for Harvey Weinstein in his landmark #MeToo case, his lawyers argued on Monday that he deserves mercy for his already \u201chistoric fall from grace\u201d and serious health issues.<\/p>\n

In a letter filed in advance of Weinstein’s sentencing on Wednesday for his New York City rape conviction, his defence team asked Judge James Burke to give him to only five years behind bars \u2014 a far cry from the potential 29-year maximum term allowed by law.<\/p>\n

A man who was once admired for putting part of his fortune into charitable causes during his rise to one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers now \u201ccannot walk outside without being heckled,\u201d the papers say. \u201cHe has lost his means to earn a living. Simply put, his fall from grace has been historic, perhaps unmatched in the age of social media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if the ailing 67-year-old defendant is given a lesser term, \u201cthe grave reality is that Mr. Weinstein may not even outlive that term\u201d making it \u201ca de facto life sentence,\u201d the papers say.<\/p>\n

From the start, Weinstein’s use of a walker to get in and out of court each day at his trial raised questions about his health. After his Feb. 24 conviction, he was sent to Bellevue Hospital amid concerns about high blood pressure and heart palpitations for more than a week before being transferred late last week in an infirmary on the notorious Riker Island jail complex.<\/p>\n

In addition to the heart issues, Weinstein’s lawyers have said he was also dealing with the ramifications of unsuccessful back surgery stemming from a car crash last summer and a condition that requires shots in his eyes so he does not go blind.<\/p>\n

In their own filing last week, prosecutors detailed a litany of allegations starting with a claim by a woman that she woke up in the middle of the night in a Buffalo, New York, hotel room in 1978 to find Weinstein on top of her and \u201cforcing himself sexually on her.\u201d They said it fit a pattern that continued for decades: Weinstein getting young women alone in hotel rooms and other settings before sexually attacking them, often while trying to trick them into thinking it was a path to stardom.<\/p>\n

The judge had told potential jurors during jury selection that the trial \u201cwas not a referendum on the #metoo movement\u201d and to consider only the specific allegations contained in the charges. But prosecutors said that by law, Burke is allowed \u201cto consider all aspects of a defendant’s life and characteristics\u201d and a \u201cbroad spectrum of information\u201d in considering a proper sentence.<\/p>\n

Based on \u201ca lifetime of abuse toward others, sexual and otherwise,\u201d the judge should impose a sentence that \u201creflects the seriousness of the defendant’s offences\u201d and punishes him for \u201chis total lack of remorse for the harm he has done,\u201d prosecutors wrote.<\/p>\n

On the criminal sex act count, Weinstein faces a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 25 years in prison, while the third-degree rape count carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison.<\/p>\n

Judges often run sentences concurrently, meaning a defendant can serve both sentences at the same time.<\/p>\n

At Weinstein’s sentencing hearing, his accusers will again get a chance to confront him in court, and the former producer will be afforded another opportunity to speak. He declined to testify on his behalf at his trial, but at sentencing he wouldn’t have to worry about getting grilled by the prosecution like he would’ve on cross-examination.<\/p>\n

Once Weinstein is sentenced, he’ll be transferred from the city’s jail system to the state prison system. There, he will undergo a thorough evaluation, including a comprehensive medical review, to determine which facility is best for his physical and security needs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 With prosecutors seeking a severe punishment for Harvey Weinstein in his landmark #MeToo case, his lawyers argued …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":228232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106,16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-tom-hays","mauthors-michael-r-sisak","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247743,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247742\/revisions\/247743"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}